Saturday, August 30, 2014

April Uprising.

"The atrocity story! Lurid details of mass murder, rape, arson, pillage, as historically published by the 'yellow' press or tabloid journalism."

From, a much earlier time we another atrocity story:

The Bulgarian April Uprising. Bulgarian nationalists seeking independence from the Ottoman Empire. A rebellion suppressed and atrocity as committed and reported by that news media of the time, journalists on the scene using telegraph to file a story.

Details LURID and grotesque, much anger and hate directed toward the Ottoman.

"The
April Uprising . . . was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in
the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876, which indirectly resulted in
the re-establishment of Bulgaria in 1878. Тhe regular Ottoman Army and
irregular bashi-bazouk units brutally suppressed the rebels"

"But let me tell you what we saw at Batak
... The number of children killed in these massacres is something
enormous. They were often spitted on bayonets, and we have several
stories from eye-witnesses who saw the little babes carried about the
streets, both here and at Olluk-Kni,
on the points of bayonets. The reason is simple. When a Mohammedan has
killed a certain number of infidels he is sure of Paradise, no matter
what his sins may be ... It was a heap of skulls, intermingled with
bones from all parts of the human body, skeletons nearly entire and
rotting, clothing, human hair and putrid flesh lying there in one foul
heap, around which the grass was growing luxuriantly. It emitted a
sickening odor, like that of a dead horse, and it was here that the dogs
had been seeking a hasty repast when our untimely approach interrupted
them ... The ground is covered here with skeletons, to which are
clinging articles of clothing and bits of putrid flesh. The air was
heavy, with a faint, sickening odor, that grows stronger as we advance.
It is beginning to be horrible. —Eyewitness account of J. A. MacGahan"

Bashi-bazook those Turkish irregulars, persons released from prison with the sole intent of waging war against the Bulgarian, atrocity an integral part of the military campaign. Those bashi-bazook I might think too paid by whatever spoils they were able to obtain, murder, rape, arson, pillage not only tolerated but encouraged.